POMONA – In what is being called the largest verdict in California for a single-victim sex abuse case, a jury awarded $8 million to a former student who was sexually abused by her eighth-grade Diamond Bar middle school teacher.

Tuesday’s decision against the Pomona Unified School District was announced Wednesday by Los Angeles-based law firm Taylor & Ring.

“I think the supervision of this teacher was so poor that it made it possible for the abuse to take place,” lead attorney John Taylor said Wednesday.

Steven Andrews, a teacher and student government adviser at Lorbeer Middle School, was convicted of sexually abusing the girl, now 19, over the course of the 2010-11 school year. Andrews first met the girl at school when she was 12.

In August 2014, Andrews, 43, of Anaheim received the maximum sentence of 15 years and 18 months in state prison.

Along with the district, the lawsuit named then-principal Krystana Walks-Harper as a defendant.

“Pomona Unified School District’s highest priority remains the health and safety of all its students, faculty and staff,” said spokesman Oliver T. Unaka in an email. “In this case, the actions of the teacher were unacceptable, unlawful and led to his immediate termination. The district has taken this matter very seriously from its inception.”

Unaka said the district performs background checks before hiring employees and monitors for updates.

“As we move forward, we will remain diligent in our efforts to do everything within our authority to continue to protect our students,” he said.

Taylor and his co-counsel, Natalie Weatherford, said that on numerous occasions, teachers and Walks-Harper failed to adequately supervise Andrews or contact Child Protection Services to report the situation.

The plaintiff’s trial brief says Walks-Harper advised Andrews, “You have your career and wife so make the right decision.” She also asked him if the relationship was “worth it.”

These comments were made after Walks-Harper learned both the girl and Andrews were not at school on the same day.

“Walks-Harper asked Andrews if he knew where plaintiff was and Andrews said he would try to locate her,” the brief says. “A few minutes later, Andrews called Walks-Harper back and said that he had located plaintiff and would bring her back to school. Walks-Harper stood outside Lorbeer and witnessed Andrews walking up the sidewalk with plaintiff and a school security officer.”

It was later learned Andrews had taken the then-14-year-old to his home where he had sex with the girl for the first time.

The incident was not reported to law enforcement or to county child welfare authorities. The brief does indicate, though, that Walks-Harper did speak to district Superintendent Stephanie Baker about the behavior at least twice. An investigation was never launched by the district, the brief says.

It wasn’t until a Lorbee Middle School teacher told his wife, a principal at another district’s high school, about the inappropriate relationship between Andrews and the student that the abuse came to light, the trial brief says. It was the teacher’s wife who reported Andrews’ activities to a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputy on Sept. 28, 2011, who then contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Andrews surrendered to L.A. County deputies two days later.

“After (LASD) knew about it, he was arrested immediately,” said Taylor. “If the district had been supervising him appropriately, this abuse would not have continued.”

According to the brief, the five-month relationship between Andrews and the girl was not the first occasion teachers took note of Andrews’ behavior toward female students.

As far back as 2001, teachers have commented Andrews was “too playful” with students, complaining to administrative staff that Andrews “spent a lot of alone time” with female students, the girl’s lawyers alleged in the lawsuit.

“This jury sent a wake-up call to California educators who ignore the red flags of child abuse and fail to protect kids at school,” Taylor said.

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